secured.

Rebekah obtained the birth-right and the coveted blessing for her
favourite child, and by that act separated him from herself and doomed
him to a banishment from his father's house, and from that hour she saw
his face no more. Laban secured by his deceit the marriage of his
unattractive daughter and the establishment of the beautiful Rachel, but
he thus alienated the children he still seems to have loved, and that
wealth which he so coveted.

Leah, by her connivance at her father's deceit, married the man she
loved, but it was to lead a life of bitter, of heart-consuming sorrow.
Jacob, departing from the institution of marriage that he might yet
possess Rachel, entailed upon himself a career of strife, bitterness and
disappointment; and introduced into his family an example that became a
fruitful source of individual depravity and national corruption; while
he first witnessed the evil effects of his complicated domestic
relations in the conduct of his eldest son, and felt at once his shame
as a husband and his reproach as a father. And are not these things
written for our edification? Are we not, in every page of God's word,
taught explicitly that for man there is neither safety nor happiness
save in the path of duty and of literal obedience? That each departure
from the rule of right, whatever be the motive, and crowned as it may
seem to be with success, draws a long succession of sin and sorrow in
its train? Many have studied the word of God to justify sin, or palliate
guilt, by the examples of the former dispensation. Let it be carefully
studied, and it will show that the transgression which secured a
positive object, still brought its punishment,--if delayed, never
remitted--although successful, never justified. The word of God never
justifies crimes, though in infinite wisdom He over-rules them to